The invention relates to the area of filling spouts, in particular those intended for machines for filling bottles.
Making filling spouts that package a conical or xe2x80x9cumbrella-shapedxe2x80x9d jet of a product is already known. Used for filling bottles, they especially make it possible to do so such that the product will be projected very rapidly from the spout output against the internal side wall of the bottle. Thus, the product is introduced into the bottle by running along the internal wall and not by being projected directly to the bottom of the bottle. In this way, the bottle filling is carried out with as little foam formation as possible, which makes it possible to increase the filling rate and thus to decrease the time necessary for filling a bottle.
Arranging an axial hollow needle in such a spout type is also known, which makes it possible to evacuate the air initially contained in the bottle without disturbing the conical jet in any way.
Two examples of spouts designed in this way are found in the documents U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,444 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,441. These spouts make it possible to decrease, in a significant way, the filling times for a bottle even if the product being bottled is a carbonated liquid, such as sodas or beer or a liquid having a tendency to foam such as milk or fruit juice.
Another problem that can be encountered in the course of filling a bottle is that of contact of the product with ambient air. In fact numerous products, in particular beer and fruit juices, can be deteriorated by oxygen. Still in the course of filling with a spout of classic design, the product is greatly exposed to air. Thus the oxygen tends to incorporate into the product, which limits its storage time.
Thus the goal of the invention is to propose a new design for a filling spout which, while maintaining the qualities of the spouts described above, also makes it possible to greatly limit, or eliminate, contact of the bottled product with air.
In accordance with this goal, the invention proposes a filling spout for delivering a liquid into a container, of the type in which the spout comprises an orifice for delivery of the liquid which forms an umbrella jet and of the type in which the spout comprises an axial hollow needle equipped with an evacuation duct for gas which opens into the interior of the space surrounded by the umbrella jet, and which projects a flow of gas that flows essentially in parallel to the umbrella jet of the liquid, from the inside of same.
According to other characteristics of the invention:
the gas supply duct opens into the interior of the space delimited by the umbrella jet in the form of an annular opening;
at the level of its opening end, the gas supply duct comprises a deflecting surface that is essentially conical;
the evacuation duct opens axially at the center of the annular opening of the gas supply duct, which opens axially at the center of the orifice for delivery of the product, which is essentially annular;
the duct supply gas is supplied with a gas that is neutral with respect to the product to be delivered;
the jet of product presents an axial rotation component;
the spout comprises an annular chamber for causing rotation, in which the project is injected with a tangential speed component, the chamber for causing rotation being extended axially by an annular duct, of which the opening end forms the orifice for delivery of the product;
the chamber for causing rotation is connected to the annular duct by a funnel-shaped surface;
the axial hollow needle passes through the chamber for causing rotation axially;
The invention also relates to a machine for filling containers, characterized in that it comprises at least one filling station equipped with a filling spout that incorporates any one of the preceding characteristics.